New York battles storm

Staff reports

Wednesday

Feb 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2008 at 10:23 PM

As upstate storms go, this blow was just a middleweight. Nonetheless, the past two days have put an army into action — police, plow crews and others — all to ensure that the rest of us make it to work, school and home safe and sound. What follows is a chronology of that mass effort.

The storm started brewing over the weekend, out West over California. On Sunday, it pushed into the Rockies and, joining forces with storms from the South, slowed down and spread out, blanketing the Great Plains. It approached the Finger Lakes like a freight train creeping over a crossing — slow, long and powerful.

At 3 a.m. Tuesday, even on the western fringes of our area, it was still a rumor. Outside the Irondequoit town garage, more than a dozen town trucks and snowplows were parked in a line, still gleaming under the lights from their washing just the past weekend to get the salt off.

Not long before dawn, though, a fine snow started sifting down through the Norway spruce in the Bristol Hills — enough to warrant brushing off a dog who had been let out, enough to sweep off the windshield for an early commute.

He’s up anyway by 4 when forecasters predict snow. After all, it’s his job to decide whether the school bells ring that day. He checks the TV and Internet forecasts, and calls highway superintendents. A little later, he calls superintendents in neighboring school districts like Waterloo, Red Jacket, Geneva and Canandaigua to find out how the roads are out their way.

“If it’s a day where we’ve got seven inches of snow down and it looks like we’re going to get eight more by afternoon and the roads are iffy now, that’s easy,” he said. “If we’ve got eight inches down by 4 a.m. and it’s supposed to taper off by 7, that’s harder.”

When a storm looms, district Transportation Supervisor Lisa Kornbau is up and driving around the back roads of Clifton Springs and Phelps by 3:30 a.m. to see if buses will be able to make small turnarounds and if teen drivers, unseasoned to winter driving, will be able to manage the roads.

“If she says no-go, it’s a no-go,” said Ford.

He said he used to be “stingy” with snow days, but a tragedy last year changed that. On a snowy December morning, a popular senior died in a car accident less than a mile from Midlakes High School. Only a little snow was on the ground that day, and it wouldn’t have been a snow day anyway, but it still makes the Midlakes chief think twice about the effects of the weather and his decisions.

“You’ve got kids, inexperienced drivers,” he said. “It makes it easier for me to close. Now if I think it’s risky, I don’t take that risk.”

But Tuesday was a no-brainer — only an inch or so of snow when the buses hit the road, not much more than a dusting. School was on.

A hit on the budget

Just as the storm quietly and slowly gathered strength, so did the forces that would be fighting it.

They gathered in every town and village. In the city of Canandaigua alone, 15 workers would be plowing 84 miles of road for the next two days. In the surrounding town of Canandaigua, an additional 244 miles of road is the work of nine workers in nine trucks, with another nine men spelling them as needed.

The immense salt hills serving all those trucks would shrink by the hour. By the time this winter has played out, a fair-sized town such as Farmington will have spread up to 7,000 tons of salt and spent $448,000 on snow removal.

That’s a huge chunk of the town budget: 11 percent. And it’s pretty much the same everywhere. East Bloomfield, for example, spends $321;183, 13 percent; Gorham, $200,890, 8 percent.

All told, municipalities in Ontario County spend about $5.6 million battling winter as 180 workers in 135 trucks use up more than 60,000 tons of salt on 2,800 miles of road. And that doesn’t include county and state crews and their equipment.

By mid-morning Tuesday in South Bristol ($304,800, 17 percent), the high roads — some reach up into the hills to elevations of 2,000 feet or so — were getting attention by an advance detachment of the town’s eight trucks. Up north, although far lower, the stretch of Route 21 between Palmyra and Canandaigua by 10:40 a.m. had one of those brief hazardous spells that sorts the experienced drivers from those in the ditch — at a temperature of 31 degrees, fine and slick snow was freezing as it hit the road, turning to black ice.

And then it was OK again. And everywhere, the big plow trucks were rumbling, well on top of the storm. By lunchtime, in his office at Midlakes, Mike Ford was looking out at the skies and the ground accumulation and guessing maybe there would be school Wednesday.

Some days, schools stayed open and he wished they hadn’t. Others, schools closed and the roads were clear by 7 a.m. Western New York has many selling points, but the school boss knows predictable weather isn’t one of them.

“The process isn’t clear-cut,” Ford admitted. “The only thing that’s ever clear-cut is if that transportation superintendent says I can’t get my buses out there safely.”

Island of warmth

By 2 p.m., the storm was starting to show teeth — not everywhere, but in spots. The kind of convergence of outside temperature, fine snow and road temperature that earlier had slickened Route 21 up in Palmyra was working its mischief sporadically, with vehicle rollovers reported on Route 20A in Bristol and a pair along Routes 5 and 20 to the north.

Five accidents took place between 2 and 3 p.m. alone. At the Victor approach to Interstate 490, an SUV was on its side. At the Thruway interchange with Route 332, a minivan had its front end smashed in.

There, at Exit 44, Hank Linek collects tolls. He’s 57, wears glasses and, during cruel weather like this, projects an ambiance to motorists that’s as cheery as campfire on a cold night in the woods.

In his memory of his 21 years with the Thruway Authority, the successive Marches of 2001 and ‘02 were the worst, closing parts of the Thruway. For him, the wind — not much of a factor, so far — is worse than the snow.

“We have our own generator to heat the building, and heat comes up through the bottom of the booths,” Hank explained. “But when it’s windy, it just blows the heat right out.”

Different weather brings out different behavior. Hard-driving rain, not blizzards, seems to affect motorists most.

“You get comments like, ‘I’ve got to get back to California or Phoenix or Florida,’” the toll-collector said. “The Floridians are a little bit more sensitive. They’ll say, ‘This stuff stinks.’”

That was pretty much the vote everywhere by evening, except in Naples and the southern Bristol Hills, which were enjoying a lull in the snowfall.

Old nightmares

The snow was still fine in most places, with heavy, wet flakes only up by the Thruway. And like that freight train, it seemed to lurch and nearly stop before regaining momentum. A vast machine matched its pace, with everyone from the Ontario County Emergency Management Office to the 911 center to the salt sheds in choreographed action.

“This county is very well organized,” said Robert Fiorille, fleet manager for Ontario County.

The Crown Victorias driven by deputies are equipped with the high-end Goodyear Ultra-grip Snow and Ice tires.

“We run them until they have about 50 percent of their tread left,” said the fleet manager, Bob Fiorille, who works out of the vast new garage on County Road 48 in Hopewell.

All told, Ontario County has about 45 patrol vehicles and several sport utility vehicles with four-wheel drive. Deputies also have two snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles that can be used to respond to a scene — say, to reach a stranded motorist — when the other vehicles won’t make it through the snow. And in the worst-case scenario, the county has road snow-blowers designed to clear the highways in a hurry.

“Everybody comes together in a storm,” Fiorille said. “All these different vehicles could be used — they got it pretty well covered.”

So far, so good — little or no wind. Wind, whiteout and snow drifts, especially on north-south roads, are what first-responders dread most.

Sheriff’s Lt. William Gallagher remembers the day well — last March 5. Several inches of snow — not too bad — but wind also, creating whiteout conditions.

Drivers across Ontario County moved at a snail’s pace. On a particularly nasty stretch of Routes 5 and 20 in Hopewell, an 85-year-old driver decided to pull over and look for help. The Horseheads woman was passing through the area and was likely not familiar with the road.

It was just before 11 a.m. A Bloomfield man happened to notice her along the side of the road, and he pulled over to help her. He parked his car on the shoulder, and had just started walking toward her when an oncoming, eastbound semi truck started to jackknife. It struck the woman and her car, killing her, before it struck the Good Samaritan’s vehicle, injuring him with flying debris.

Ontario County sheriff’s deputies and firefighters who responded struggled to see even a few feet in front of themselves. A Hopewell Fire Department fire truck was parked across the highway — it might have spared those on scene from serious injury. A 20-year-old from Waterloo hit it, injuring himself.

Lt. Gallagher was at the scene of the Hopewell crash and was deployed elsewhere throughout the day.

“I can even remember that night on my way home,” he said.

“With the snow, we cope, we can get around,” he said. “But once you get that whiteout condition — when you can’t see the hood of your car — that’s when it gets real bad. You’re sitting out there and you’re waiting for something else to happen.”

At 4:15, he picks up the phone and updates the weather phone that listeners can call for updates. It takes Williams about one minute to record the forecast, and he does it without a single stumble.

“We still do it the old-fashioned way in some regards,” he said.

Then he looks at various views of the radar, studying the storm. Here’s the Tuesday evening forecast: The snow will continue essentially unabated right through Wednesday — a “long duration” storm with moderate snowfall, increasing winds.

“We expect another six or eight inches to fall tonight on into a portion of Wednesday, so winter lives in the Finger Lakes,” said Williams.

Indeed. Between 4 and 5 p.m., a home-bound commuter counted five cars off the road or in accidents, on Route 332 and Interstate 490 east and Interstate 390 north. Despite near-whiteout conditions at times, lots of people are driving without headlights.
It’s the sort of thing that makes a cop wonder.

Sgt. Doug Smith said he isn’t psychic, but he’s pretty good at predicting the future — sooner rather than later, his patrol car will be assisting a young person in a four-wheel-drive that went too fast for the conditions.

About 5 p.m., the 15-year veteran of the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office was patrolling the roads from Canandaigua down to Naples and over to Honeoye.

“We still can’t figure out how to get people to slow down,” he said as the scanner cracks with reports of four more accidents. “It’s all about speed; you just have to pick a speed that’s reasonable and safe.”

He was just coming back from the accidents off Exits 44 and 45 of the Thruway. It appeared that the drivers there exited and weren’t driving slow enough for the conditions.

People with SUVs are also a problem.

“They think they can get their SUV on a snow-covered highway at 65,” he said. “You’re going to end up in a ditch.”

Minutes later, the scanner cackled about a Jeep in a ditch in South Bristol, and he headed over.

Smith said the sheriff’s office is focusing a lot on getting the number of accidents with injuries down. They’re collecting data on the factors that cause a crash, including time of day and road conditions, for future study. They’re also issuing more 1180E tickets for maintaining a speed “not reasonable” for road conditions. A few of those were issued Tuesday afternoon at accident scenes.

One woman in South Bristol took out part of a guardrail as she veered off the road. A deputy at the scene told Smith the woman wasn’t happy when she got a ticket. Well, you can’t pull a thousand-pound guard rail into the road if you’re driving 20 miles per hour, he said.

Deputies are pros when it comes to traveling in difficult road conditions. They go to the runway at the former Seneca Army Depot every few years to drive through a course with retired patrol cars and “learn what the cars will do.”

Still, even Smith slipped and slid a bit. As the Bristol Mountain Ski Resort came into view, he remarked that Route 64 is a hot spot for accidents.

“Rochester kids get mom and dad’s brand new SUV and their Cadillac Escalades” and speed down the highway to hit the slopes, he said.

He drove a few more miles to County Road 33, where emergency crews were on the scene for that four-wheel drive Jeep in the ditch. A deputy said the driver is a young man with a restricted license that only allows him to drive to school and sporting events. Apparently he was driving a little too fast, though probably not over 30 miles per hour. He veered off the road and his Jeep — registered to his father — was leaning toward its side in a patch of trees. He told the deputy it was OK that he was driving, even though he wasn’t going to school. He was going to Bristol Mountain Ski Resort, and he thought that counted as a sporting event.

Smith said it didn’t.

Road conditions, young drivers, speed and common sense — Smith says it doesn’t take a psychic to predict what’s happening — just experience.

“I’ve been doing it for 15 years and it’s always the same story,” he said.

The storm settled in for the evening. Susanne’s Fitness for Women, on Route 332 in Canandaigua, was entirely devoid of its after-work rush, with the regulars ostensibly staying home. In the city, at Wood Library, billboard-like signs at each entrance announced the snow-induced cancellation of author Ben Sherwood’s visit from Atlanta. Members of the library staff were skeptical about the predicted storm, alleging that “it’s never as bad as they say it’s going to be.”

By 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the lull in the storm to the south was over. The wind was picking up, the snow was blowing in.

Back at it

At 3 a.m. today, while most of their neighbors slept, members of the Naples town highway crew began arriving at the town barns on Tannery Creek Road. In the office, they put on a pot of coffee and turned a small TV to the Weather Channel — not because they needed to check the weather.

“There’s not much else on TV at this hour,” remarked crew member Tim Warren.
As for the forecast, they knew what to expect.

“More pesky snow,” said Warren.

First order of business was looking over the equipment, said Superintendent Dave Voss II. After a check of the oil and kick to the tires of the four 10-wheel dump trucks and two pickups (you know a tire needs air if “it isn’t as hard as a rock,” said Voss), the men and their rigs were ready to spend half an hour or so warming up before taking to the roads.

The fleet was rolling by 3:40 a.m. to the first of several routes that would be completed well before school buses and most commuters hit the roads. The sand and salt mix would have enough time to settle on road surfaces, explained Voss, making a coating that helps melt ice and snow.

Up in one of the big trucks, Roger Stopka settled into his seat. After 15 years on the crew, driving the 16-ton trucks (which weigh closer to 30 tons with the two plows attached and a full load of salt/sand mix) the job is second nature to him.

“It gets a little loud is all,” said Stopka, as the plows and engine roared into motion.
The wind blew snow across the road, something Stopka said he anticipated would happen all day.

“The wind keeps you out more, because it puts snow back on the road,” he said.

Working a control box between the front seats, Stopka maneuvered the plows. It doesn’t matter that he can’t see the wing plow off the passenger side, he said. Regulating it “is mostly your instinct,” he said.

No telling how many runs the crew would have to make today, he said. In winter, it’s not unheard of to work 12, 14 hours or more in a day, he said.

But the job never really becomes routine. For instance, on days when the snow is particularly deep, it’s difficult to determine road lines, he said.

“Sometimes you hit a mail box,” he revealed. “One time I hit three in one day.”
This first leg of Stopka’s route covered County Road 36, Feather Street and Maxfield Road — the latter a steep, winding road connecting County Road 36 and Eelpot.

“I don’t think people think these trucks ever get stuck, or slide,” he said. “I’ve slid down Maxfield Road many times.”

But today the trek went along without a hitch. It took 50 minutes to get back to the barn. At 4:30 a.m., Stopka pulled in for another load of the sand mix — not because it was all used up, but because you need the weight for traction.

The trucks never “run empty,” said Voss.

As the sun crept up, roads were slick and slushy but far from impassable. The morning commuters made their way out, presumably a little earlier than usual. Not all of them made it to their destination without incident — a car was seen off the road along Route 332 in Farmington, just south of the Thruway. But most negotiated the conditions admirably.

The weather advisories had, by this time, been canceled. And school children — perhaps much to their surprise — were off to class.

Mike Ford, the Midlakes superintendent, said he monitored the conditions and gathered recommendations from school transportation staff and town highway crews in making the decision not to close.

“The snow was never heavy,” he said.

At his district, the main consideration is the road conditions and visibility for driving, as all the students ride a bus and the district doesn’t have walkers, he said.

At 8:45 this morning, as homeowners along Gulick Road in South Bristol dug themselves out from more than a foot of snow, they were greeted by the sight of a jogger and his dog.